Seventeen years among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo; a ... - Sabrizain.org

SEA DYAK IN SARAWAK 329
among the large and scattered population of Sea Dyaks
in Sarawak is but small.
The up-country Mission Schools, which the Government
liberally support, admit boys at an early age, when they
are most susceptible to the reception of new ideas. Here
they are away from Dyak surroundings, and live with
the Missionary and Schoolmaster. One naturally hopes
that each of these boys returning to his family will be
an example to them, leading them into the right way,
and no doubt the old schoolbovs have an influence for
good, in more ways than one, on the homes to which they
return. There are, indeed, among the Christian Sea
Dyaks of Sarawak some striking examples
of an intelli-
gent reception of the truth, and of a faith which is a living
personal force governing their lives. But, unhappily,
these cases are few as compared with the bulk of the
population, and the people live such an unsettled life
that missionary effort, as it exists in Sarawak at the
present time, can but touch a small proportion of them,
and, unless greatly reinforced, cannot affect, to any very
considerable extent, the future of the Sea Dyak.
The Government, by maintaining discipline
in the
different districts, by punishing crime and regulating
trade, is no doubt instilling into the mind of the people
important principles of law and order, and it has sup-
pressed the atrocious crimes of piracy and head-hunting.
The importation of Hakka Chinese to show the Dyaks
how paddy ought to be planted is an important move
in the right direction, and will conduce to their pros-
perity if only they can be persuaded
to submit to instruc-
tion. But the future of the Sea Dyak even as regards
material well-being is somewhat doubtful. There are
those who say that he is slowly, but none the less surely,